Cavanaugh: sad to see Post Office for sale

Published 5:34 pm, Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Quiz: Who was the only Stamford mayor to attain a high cabinet position in a presidential administration? Answer somewhere in this column.

How ironic that Texas Gov. Rick Perry would speak at a symposium on civility at the Ferguson Library in Stamford on June 17, the week before his state, far and away the national leader in executions, was scheduled to execute its 500th prisoner, a 51-year-old woman, since 1982, six years after the death penalty was legalized again in the United States. That total is four times greater than the second largest number of executions in any other state, and represents 40 percent of the 1,300 executions since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states had the right to perform executions. Roughly half of those 500 executions in Texas have occurred while Perry was governor. Perry's reaction? "I think our system works just fine," he said not long ago. Not everyone would agree, since there's been considerable doubt about the guilt of some of those executed, most of whom have been black and Hispanic. Indeed, even one of Perry's gubernatorial predecessors, Mark White, recently said, "I think that Texas is getting the reputation for being blood-thirsty." Rick Perry talking about civility? That's like having Bernie Madoff talking about business ethics.

Speaking of Perry, the main purpose of his visit to Connecticut seemed to be to try to lure some of the state's firearms manufacturers to Texas, where carrying a gun is about as common as carrying a cell phone in Connecticut. Perry seems to have been trying to take advantage of the bitterness of the state's gun manufacturers over a new state law enacted in the aftermath of the massacre at a Newtown elementary school last December that bans the sale of assault weapons and requires background checks of potential weapons' buyers. Connecticut is the seventh largest producer of firearms in the country, and its seven manufacturers -- some of whom have threatened to leave -- account for almost 3,000 jobs. Perry, who visited the largest company, the renown Colt's Manufacturing in West Hartford, while he was in the state, where he was given a custom-engraved pistol. Couldn't be a more appropriate governor to give a gun to.

Like a lot of people, I'm still waiting to hear Stamford's ultra-quiet mayoral candidates state their positions on the proposed move of the super-rich Bridgewater Associates hedge fund from Westport to a choice 14-acre stretch of waterfront property in the South End that is clearly, both on the state and city levels, designated solely for water use, as has been the case for around 100 years. So far not a peep, except for Democratic candidate David Martin's opposition to having a mini boatyard established off Magee Avenue to replace the one which stood where Bridgewater hopes to build. And let's stop that nonsense from Bridgewater and its backers that a move to town by the hedge fund would create around 1,000 jobs. It would. Problem is they're already filled. All that Bridgewater would create, apart from some tax revenue, would be a lot more traffic.

I was saddened to notice a for-sale sign on the stately and elegant old post office building on lower Atlantic Street, which is still in service. One of the city's few remaining landmarks, the Renaissance Revival-style stone structure was built in 1916 and for years was Stamford's only post office. Several years ago, the F.D. Rich construction company proposed erecting a hotel on the site, but the idea never reached fruition. Lately there have been reports that a Westchester County developer who was involved with the Rich company in building Trump Parc wants to acquire the lovely old post office and its grand piazza fronting Atlantic Street. Hopefully, this grand building will be preserved unlike some other Stamford landmarks such as the Civil War-era armory that stood on Washington Boulevard for more than 100 years until it was demolished, seemingly without notice to anyone more than two decades ago.

Answer to quiz. The only former Stamford mayor to attain a cabinet rank was Homer Cummings who was attorney general during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first term. It was Cummings, who, during his third term as mayor in 1906, broke a 6-6 tie in the Stamford Common Council, when he voted in favor of a proposal to buy what became Halloween Park and which eventually, and justifiably, was named Cummings Park in the 1930s. Why Halloween Park? Because the vote was taken on Halloween night. That prompted one council member, perhaps with tongue in cheek, propose naming the new park for the holiday. Much to his surprise, no doubt, his colleagues agreed. Only the Halloween Yacht Club within Cummings Park still carries the legacy of the park's original name.